This is my one-hundredth article since I started this blog on 7 August 2005. That's not a bad track record, really, and I seem to be back in the swing of things after a sparse couple of months. To celebrate this centennial I'm going to give you something to laugh at, a classic series of quotes from Dan Quayle. Remember him? He used to be vice-president of this obscure little country they call the United States of America. At the time he seemed like a right idiot, but now that things have got so much worse we can look back with a sense of nostalgia and even longing.

"Hawaii is a unique state. It is a small state. It is a state that is by itself. It is different from the other 49 states. Well, all states are different, but it's got a particularly unique situation."

"If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure."

"It isn't pollution that's harming the environment. It's the impurities in our air and water that are doing it."

"I love California. I practically grew up in Phoenix."

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind. Or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is."